Recently the chaos caused by substance abuse entered my life through
the back door. Being the person that I am, I immediately sought ways to
resume control of my life. It took a few months for me to figure out what
was going on or I never would have stumbled into the nonsense of 12-step
programs or the myth of 'treatment.'

It started last November when a young woman with a three year old child
told me she had no choice but to leave her drug-using husband. 'Good for
you,' I told her. She was doing just exactly what should be done under
the circumstances, but oops, that wasn't really what she meant. She really
wasn't going to leave him; she just needed him to change. 'Fat chance,'
I thought, but I kept my thoughts to myself as I got sucked into the muddle
other people made of their lives.

There is nothing unusual about the details of the months that followed.
The heartbreak, anger, and financial ruin are inevitable whenever someone
shuns responsibility for pleasure of drugs. However, this was the first
time that I have ever been personally affected by the lies and manipulation
that are the standard way of life for drug users. Because I only knew
about this kind of tragedy through rumor and hearsay, I thought there
were mental health professionals who offered some kind of treatment or
at least advice. After all, drugs and alcohol have been a problem throughout
history. Of course I believed that modern science had dealt with it. Especially
now since science had defined alcoholism as a disease. I thought that
12-step programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous gave substance abusers logical,
well thought out advice on how to control addictions.

Was I ever wrong!

Treatment and counseling always requires the substance user to join a
12-step program. Before this series of events intruded in my life, I thought
that 12-step principles promoted by groups like Alcoholics Anonymous offered
advice about how to quit using alcohol and drugs. Instead, what 12-step
programs say is that the substance users have no control over whether
or not the chemical gets in their bodies. The user is diseased and will
remain helpless and addicted for the rest of his or her life. Even thinking
that they can refuse drug and alcohol use is given a mumbo-jumbo name,
'denial.'

AA is actually founded on the principle that drunks and junkies do not
possess the same free will as non-diseased people. While claiming to be
spiritual rather than religious, these programs and the drug treatment
counselors that recommend them, tell users that they are not responsible
for their actions. Although it isn't clear whether it is a god or demon
that controls their behavior, it is clear that they simply cannot ever,
for their entire lives, determine their own fate. They are warned against
any thought of cutting the puppet strings because as counselors, courts,
and AA tells them, they suffer from a disease.

How pathetic it must be to have an incurable disease that requires a
lifetime of shame and self-flagellation. How tragic that these addicts
are powerless against demons whose goal is to force nasty chemicals down
their throat or into their veins.

Yes, I have gone back to my original belief that using drugs and alcohol
is a conscious choice. I believe that junkies and drunks desire their
drug so strongly they forget their responsibility to family. I believe
that as long as AA, the courts, and the 'treatment' industries give users
the made-up excuse of 'disease' we will continue to have a substance abuse
problem.

Fortunately, many years ago, I heard of a program called Rational Recovery.
Four months in to the nonsense of 12-step programs, I "Googled"
Rational Recovery and was relieved to find their web site. RR states that
the substance user is the only one in control of whether or not he or
she drinks or uses drugs. Any person who chooses to quit on their own
had a better chance at success than a practitioner of a 12-step program
or a 'treatment' program. Considering the evidence published by Alcoholics
Anonymous themselves, I think it is time to speak out against Alcoholics
Anonymous and the disease theories of addiction.

Yes, speak out against it. AA not only offers excuses to drunks and junkies
to continue their destructive behavior, it offers them an opportunity
to do so with the childish excuse that they can't help themselves; they
don't have any choice; they are defective due to a disease. As an added
bonus, they can attend meetings where they can sit around and reminisce
with other users about how good it feels to be high.

The truth is that users get pleasure from alcohol, drugs, or cigarettes.
The pleasure they feel is more important to them than the pain they cause
to their families. At any time, the user of any substance has the power
to say, 'I will never do this again.' No demon or supernatural entity
has the power to administer the substance into the user's body.

As much as 12-step programs are about hopeless lack of self-control,
Rational Recovery is about taking charge of life, celebrating free will
and self-determination. Although RR states that a user can quit without
RR, the program offers some strategies to help people get out of the disease-victim
mode of thinking.

I also learned, and I had my suspicions beforehand, that there is no
such thing as treatment for substance abuse except to just stop. Alcoholism
has been listed as a disease, but there has never been any scientific
data to base this on. Twelve-step programs have a success rate of no more
that 5%. AA, NA, and Al-anon are entirely religious belief systems that
negate the concept of personal freedom. AA depends on 'wearing away of
the individual.' RR tells individuals to take responsibility for their
actions.

So if you want to drink, drink. If you want to use drugs - that's entirely
your free choice, and you already know what the consequences might be.
But when substances cause so much chaos in your life that you want to
quit them once and for all, you have the ability to do just that.